Lock up the women and children because the Lake Shore is coming. The cast for Canada's version of MTV's Jersey Shore has been released and by all accounts it will be an ethnically charged atmosphere with each house guest seemingly fitting into a particular ethnic stereotype.

The mystery of Don Draper continues to peel like an opinion as Mad Men Season 4 debuts tonight across North America. What is life like after Sterling Cooper? Can Don Draper adjust to life as a single man? These and many other plotlines intersect in what should be another mesmerizing season of the award-winning series.

Mad Men Season 4 @ 10PM - Sunday, July 25thAMC Channel - (check your local cable provider to see if AMC is available in your area)

They say bad things come in 3's. First, his former girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva released a now much-publicized taped conversation that portrays Gibson as a verbally abusive, racist guy. You can listen to Mel Gibson's rant here....

Secondly, after the tape surfaced and became public knowledge, Mel Gibson's agent Ed Limato died. And thirdly, shortly thereafter his talent agency William Morris Endeavor dropped him from their client roster.

For Mel Gibson it certainly appears that bad things do indeed come in 3's. In his case, deservedly so.

On last Friday's Late Show with David Letterman, Letterman explained in a ten-minute monologue that an extortion attempt had been made upon him: some guy had proof that Letterman had slept with a number of his female staff workers over the years, and he wanted Letterman to pay him $2 million. Letterman went to the authorities, and the guy was arrested. Here's the big confession, jokes and all:

Letterman tapes his show in the late afternoon, so news was already leaked to the press about the scandal a number of hours before the show aired.

Since then, we've found out a lot more. And interestingly, the big story seems not to be Letterman's affairs (he only got married to his wife, Regina Lasko, in March, so they're not technically "affairs," though he did date her for 23 years...hmm, wonder why it took so long to get married). The big story is Letterman's alleged extortionist.

Robert Halderman is a producer for CBS's 48 Hours. He's known among co-workers as a big personality and a smart guy who could get things done.

So why after covering countless criminal cases for his own show did he do something as stupid as try to extort $2 million from a celebrity? Gawker notes his marriage was in shambles and he had to pay insane child support. And also, Stephanie Birkitt, one of Letterman's alleged partners, also had a relationship with Halderman. Which presumably has to be connected somehow.

On last night's show, Letterman effectively apologized for his earlier apology, saying that by admitting he slept with female staff workers, he was subjecting his entire staff to an embarrassing publicity circus. He also apologized to his wife: "I've got a lot of work to do."

But most amusingly, he made fun of himself for his own long history of making fun of celebrities who had extramarital affairs: "Hey, Bill Clinton was in the news..." trails off. "Mark Sanford..." trails off. "Elliot Spitzer..." trails off. Then: "This is phase one. Of the scandal. Phase two, I go on Oprah and cry."

Well, it’s finally happened. TLC has yanked Jon Gosselin from Jon & Kate Plus Eight — excuse me, “adapted to the changing Gosselin family,” as this morning’s press release says — and henceforth, we can watch the new, new, new Kate Plus Eight...TLC says in its statement that the new show will "recalibrate the program to keep pace with the family… and Kate as a newly single mother raising 5 year-old sextuplets and 8 year-old twins."

I don't mean to lay all the blame on this never-ending public debacle on TLC. Jon Gosselin has proved himself to be a tool of epic proportions. While they were still married, everybody seemed to think Kate was a total bitch and Jon was the classic put-upon husband, but now thanks to a ridiculous fashion sense, a very public mid-life crisis, and lots of gallivanting around with younger women while you have eight kids at home, you idiot, it doesn't matter if they're with their mom or their nannies, just think about how this is going to affect them, I'm frankly glad to have him out of the show.

And I'm sure he is too -- he only ever expressed reluctance for having his life turn into a media circus. (On that point, who can blame him?)

And, to bring things full circle, I'm sure TLC is, not least because the show rhymes better without him.

The producers of American Idol no doubt wanted to grab a big name and surprise people. But look, it's not like the show is desperate for publicity. Yes, its ratings are sliding (slightly), but gimmicks like this will not turn the show around -- more likely, after the show is over, people will look back on it as "one of those things they tried when the ratings were sliding."

I like Ellen a lot. In the right situation, she is hilarious and a lot of fun. "The right situation" is usually in hosting situations: her daytime talk show is successful for a reason, and I admired her laid-back style she brought to hosting the Oscars.

But sharing the spotlight with three other people, all of whom, unlike her, actually know stuff about music? I have some doubts that this will last past the upcoming season.

She'll begin, by the way, after all the audition rounds, which have already taken place with guest judges Victoria Beckham, Mary J. Blige, Shania Twain, Avril Lavigne, Neil Patrick Harris, Katy Perry, and Joe Jonas.

The Los Angeles coroner’s office has ruled Michael Jackson’s death a homicide, the Associated Press reports. The pop star had “lethal levels” of the surgical anesthetic propofol in his system, along with two other narcotics, when he died on June 25, an unnamed source told the AP. Jackson’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, who was present at the time of the singer’s death, told officials he administered 25 to 50 mg of propofol to Jackson nightly, possibly for as long as six weeks, as treatment for insomnia. Search warrants executed at the home Jackson rented turned up large quantities of propofol, as well as several other sedatives. The coroner’s findings could lead to charges against the doctor in Jackson’s death.

Sounds like an involuntary manslaughter conviction. Then again, I'm not a lawyer, and am basing that only on my experiences of watching hours and hours of Law & Order reruns.

Still, I can't bring myself to care. I'm sick of the constant talk, I'm sick of all the bandwagon jumpers who pretended they were still huge fans, I'm sick of the media giving this guy more attention than stuff like the Iranian election or, you know, good people who died that didn't like sleeping in the same bed with little boys.

Right after Jackson died, my dad -- who doesn't pay attention to celebrities to the point where he asked my mom after watching Ocean's 11 which one was George Clooney and which one was Brad Pitt -- accurately predicted the entire trajectory. I was complaining about how Jackson had taken over the news cycle entirely, and my dad just chuckled a bit, sighed, then said: "yep, and you know, as soon as it dies down you'll start hearing the conspiracy theories and murder claims."

The other guy will be actor Neal Bledsoe, who will play NYU's gay head of freshman affairs. He gets to select an incoming student to deliver the freshman speech, and since Blair (Leighton Meester) really, really wants to give it, she pimps out her own boyfriend Chuck to "convince" him that she's the girl for the job.

In the books, Chuck was a full-on bisexual, something the TV series hasn't even hinted at until now.

I went to NYU, so I might check out this season a little more closely to see what they get right and what they get wrong. I don't seem to remember any "freshman speech," so there's one already for the latter category.

And yes, I know this post is about Chuck, not Blair. But Leighton Meester is just way too hot. Sorry.